New Zealand's goods exports to China last month were the first to see a year-on-year rise in 10 months, the government statistics agency said Friday.
However, the rise of 20 million NZ dollars (13.17 million U.S. dollars) to 699 million NZ dollars (460.36 million U.S. dollars) of goods exported to China failed to prevent New Zealand's first June trade deficit since 2009, according to Statistics New Zealand.
The rise in exports to China was over a range of commodities including logs, meat and fruit.
"When we compare the same months a year apart, this is the first monthly increase in exports to China since August 2014," international statistics manager Jason Attewell said in a statement.
"However, whole milk powder to China continued its recent falls, and was down 92 million NZ dollars (60.59 million U.S. dollars)."
Between September 2014 and May 2015, exports to China fell an average of 373 million NZ dollars (245.65 million U.S. dollars) a month when compared with the same month in the previous year.
Exports to Australia, New Zealand's largest export partner, fell an average of 43 million NZ dollars (28.31 million U.S. dollars) a month over that time.
Overall goods exports rose 1.3 percent, or 56 million NZ dollars (36.87 million U.S. dollars), in June 2015, despite milk powder, butter, and cheese exports being down 320 million NZ dollars (210.68 million U.S. dollars).
Monthly imports rose 9 percent, or 355 million NZ dollars (233. 73 million U.S. dollars) compared with June 2014.
The rise was across a range of commodities, including consumption goods from China, such as clothing, machinery and plant from China, such as mobile phones.
There was a trade deficit of 60 million NZ dollars (39.5 million U.S. dollars) in June 2015, contributing to annual trade deficit in the year ending June of 2.8 billion NZ dollars (1.84 billion U.S. dollars).
